Blockchains are used as a public ledger of electronic transactions. Each new block of transactions that is added to a blockchain provides for further validation of the previous blocks, resulting in the blockchain becoming stronger and stronger as the blockchain grows over time. Because past blocks in the blockchain never change, and because the blockchain does not lose or discard past blocks, the blockchain becomes an immutable, yet publicly accessibly, record of all transactions. Blockchains can also offer additional benefits that encourage their use in the conducting of electronic transactions, such as anonymity and security.
In order to generate new blocks for a blockchain, many blockchains rely on extensive computing power that utilizes a hashing algorithm combined with brute force searching to generate a hash that matches the previous block in the blockchain. To encourage participation in the searching, blockchains often allow for any user with any suitable computing device to participate, and will also often offer a reward to the user that successfully finds a suitable hash value. As more users participate, and as computing power increases, blockchains may experience more and more waste of energy and computational power.
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution whereby new blocks for a blockchain may be generated that are reliable and secure, but without resulting in significant computational and energy waste. The use of signatures by verified and trusted participants may ensure that new blocks are reliable and secure, while enabling the blocks to be suitably verified for inclusion in a blockchain, while also requiring significantly less computational power. In addition, by utilizing only trusted entities, the participant pool may be limited, which may decrease the amount of energy wasted to produce new blocks for the blockchain. Thus, there is a need for a technical solution that utilizes a trusted pool of participants and digital signatures for the signing of blockchain transactions.